Sphelele, K M and Amoah, C (2024) Challenges of black contractors with the South African public procurement system. In: Thomson, C (ed.) Proceedings of 40th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2024, London South Bank University, UK.
Abstract
Public procurement processes still reflect demographic inequalities, particularly regarding the underrepresentation of black contractors in South Africa. This study sought to identify the problems of black contractors with the current procurement system in South Africa and provide strategies to overcome these obstacles. The qualitative research method was employed for primary data collection. Twelve interviews were conducted with black contractors in the construction industry. Data received was analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that black contractors face several challenges, including financial capacity issues, human resource capacity issues, stigma issues, and corruption issues. The findings show that despite the various reforms instituted by the South African government to enhance black contractors' participation in procurement systems, there are still many challenges inhibiting black contractors from fully participating in the procurement system. The paper identifies the black contractors' challenges with the current public procurement systems and provides measures that can assist the government in improving the public procurement system to address these challenges.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | black; contractors; government; public procurement; South Africa |
| Index terms: | inequality, human resource, corruption, procurement system, construction industry, South Africa, interview, procurement process, face, qualitative research method, strategy, content analysis |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, research design and methodology, data analysis and analytics, contractual arrangements, psychology, Geography, management, professional ethics, industry analysis, sociology |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Ethics, Human Resources, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here